Straw fiddle

The straw fiddle , also wooden harmonica, gigelyra, wooden laughter (in Tyrol wooden glachter ), is a xylophone commonly used in alpine folk music , especially among Tyrolean musicians , which consists of coordinated wooden sticks made with wooden bobbins and resting on a support made of straw braids.

The percussion instrument is constructed similarly to the dulcimer , but instead of the steel strings, square wooden sticks are loosely laid on plaited straw. These bars, mostly made of dry fir wood, are matched to the diatonic scale through recesses on the underside, they are held together by strings in the correct order.

Although the instrument has been known since the 15th century, it was not until Joseph Gusikow that the straw fiddle was significantly perfected and used for concerts under the name of the wood and straw instrument .

How this instrument got the name "fiddle" or "gigelyra" has not yet been investigated. Sebastian Virdung already mentions the straw fiddle in Musica tutscht (1511).

literature

• Straw fiddle . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 1909
• Adolf Mais (Hrsg.): Austrian folklore for everyone . Museum of Folklore Vienna, Maria A. Petricek publishing house, Vienna 1954.